Many good hockey stories start over a cold beer. Four Fathers Brewing Co. is a good beer story that started over hockey.
A fledgling craft brewery housed in a renovated barn just north of Rockwood, Four Fathers is the brainchild of four hockey dads.
Mike Hruden, John Kissick, Martin Castellan and James Tyo all have sons that play on the same Centre Wellington hockey team. They became quick friends over the years, sharing their love for family, hockey and beer.
It led to some travelling, searching out new craft beers, and eventually nights gathering around the stove in Kissick's Guelph kitchen, brewing up batches of their own suds. First store-bought kits, eventually their own concoctions.
"We had a passion for craft beer and craft breweries before a lot of people did," Kissick says. "And we realized the beer we were making was as good or better as many that were out there."
The four weren't just beer drinkers, they were beer lovers: part of that group of people who seek out quality, nuances and uniqueness in their beer.
They're not alone.
Beer Canada statistics from 2015 show there are 650 breweries in Canada. Twenty five years ago that number was 56.
Small breweries now account for roughly 11 per cent of total beer sales.
With the boom in micro-breweries in Ontario, where there are over 200, the four knew early on it was something they were interested in.
"We all had a notion early on about a micro-brewery. It was a vision we all shared," Kissick says. "Eventually we decided that we were either going to have to go for it or leave it behind.
"There is a boom and a lot of craft breweries popping up. We didn't want to get left behind in the dust."
They went for it, starting Four Fathers a year ago.
All four come from successful, albeit different, professional worlds: Hruden was in telecommunications hardware sales, Kissick is a fine arts professor at the University of Guelph, Tyo is the president of EB Games Canada and Castellan is a partner in the Guelph commercial investment firm Skyline.
"We're all from different backgrounds, but it was a love of hockey, our sons and family that brought us together," Kissick says.
Hruden quit his job and became GM of the company. He also was relentless in getting the licensing pushed through in just three months.
Four Fathers is now in over 60 restaurants and bars in the region and in Hamilton. Later this month their signature beer Starter Session IPA will be available in seven area beer stores and next month on the shelf in liquor stores.
There has also been beer festival events every weekend, where they have won a pair of "best beer" titles, and Four Fathers was on tap at this year's Hillside Festival.
"It's been gruelling. Every weekend there's an event," Hruden says. "But it's important to be there and it's important for the owners to be there. It shows we stand for something good."
It's worked so far.
"In a way we've been victims of our own success," Kissick says. "We just can't keep up with demand."
That could all change in the near future. They are negotiating for a much bigger space to house their brewery and allow for a retail outlet.
"We've outgrown this place, basically," Kissick says.
The new space would allow them to brew up to 10 times the 40 to 60 hectolitres a month they say they are currently producing.
Four Fathers offers an array of beers, including IPAs, a stout, and a saison made with local honey and spearmint picked from a neighbours garden. The four anchor beers are Starter Session IPA, Shevchenko 9 dunkel, French Session Honey Lager and Saucy St. Lucy hopped wheat.
There has been a learning curve. A brew master left after a few months for bigger pastures and the company has found out the hard way that making good beer doesn't necessarily guarantee you coveted tap space in bars and restaurants.
"Making quality beer doesn't always mean success," Kissick says.
"To a degree the craft beer industry has created its own little devil in that the craft beer consumer wants whatever is new and unique," Kissick says. "You might have a popular beer, but they rotate the taps because there are so many craft beers and craft beer drinkers are always looking to try something new."
Four Fathers comes in draught, cans and 750 ml bottles are used, all adorned with artistic labelling on the front and a story behind the beer on the back.
Those stories include the one on the Ukrainian Dunkel beer Shevchenko 9 about the time the four owners were in Kiev to watch the European Cup, some extremely bargain-priced Ukrainian soccer jerseys, a wrong number and potentially accidentally insulting an entire nation.
"We're finding out how incredibly fun but difficult this thing is," Kissick says.
